I’d
love to know who sold Christians and clergy the bogus notion that the
church somehow needs to be more “relevant” to the culture
in order to win it for Christ. You can hardly escape the word in Christian
circles today. It’s absolutely everywhere believers are, and is
used incessantly alongside other trendy terms like “connect,”
“passion,” “purpose,” “awesome” and
“tolerance” – flying out the mouths of church leaders
as if it were some sacred biblical principle that should be worn like
a phylactery on our foreheads and proclaimed from the rooftops lest we
forget and, Heaven forbid, be a contrast to the culture in which we live.

The
word “relevant” is not even in the Bible – except in
one so-called bible version and verse – if you can bear to call
The Message a Bible. But, the amazing irony of its brief appearance there,
is that it points out perfectly why Christians should avoid being relevant:

"Don't
be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don't
reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you're only
being cute and inviting sacrilege.” – Matthew 7:6

Does
that not accurately describe the relevant church today: cute, flippant,
silly and full of slogans and sacrilege? Sounds just like the seeker-sensitive,
purpose driven and emerging church to me!

Throughout
scripture, in both the Old and New Testament, God’s own are repeatedly
referred to as a “peculiar people.” (Exodus 19:5, Deuteronomy
14:2, 26:18, Titus 2:14 & 1st Peter 2:9) I’ve written about
this many times over the years.

That
means we ought to be viewed by the world around us as distinctive. But
how can Christians be both distinctive and relevant? And just how does
one “connect” with a culture and not be “unequally yoked”
to it?

Being
distinctive is what being sanctified and set apart for God is all about.
We’re not suppose to look and act like the rest of the world. We’re
not called to blend in.

We’re
called to “come out from among them” and stand out as a testimony
to God’s power and presence in a corrupt kingdom! You see, if we
don’t look or act any different from the world around us, then we’re
probably not any different.

But
the church isn’t teaching sanctification anymore because it’s
an unfashionable, unpopular and outdated word that scares sinners and
separates Christians from the culture of cool. No, today’s church
has, instead, set its heart on being more relevant to the culture than
righteous before God in a prideful and egregious effort to help Jesus
get the numbers up.

“Go
ye into all the world and be relevant?”

I don’t
think so.

In my
estimation, the word “relevant” was simply another devilishly
dialectic term marketed to the church as a clever way to help Christians
appeal to the flesh of the lost and buddy-up to the Beelzebub Club without
appearing to compromise one’s Christian faith. But, that’s
exactly what it does. And the more relevant one becomes to the enemies
of Christ, the more irrelevant they become to God.

A preacher
at a local megachurch my wife and I recently visited proudly told me a
few days ago that he’s known as the pastor of the “coolest
church in town” – using the word “cool” in various
forms repeatedly in his email message, as if that would somehow impress
me and make membership there more attractive. Unfortunately, he didn’t
realize that it would actually have the opposite effect. So, he was a
little surprised and offended when I told him that “cool is not
a fruit of the Spirit.”

If Christians
have any relevance to this world, it is that we currently share it with
unbelievers, who, like us, have a sinful nature. That’s all the
relevance to this world Christians need in order to bear witness of the
saving grace that came by Jesus Christ. It certainly isn’t necessary
that we seek out more relevance than we already have.

Shall
we now imitate more perfectly the hell-bound culture we were saved from
as a means to win its favor, cooperation and participation? That’s
not evangelism – that’s capitulation.

Being
sanctified means we belong to Someone else now – Someone Who has
forgiven our trespasses and sins and called us out of our old lives of
depravity and rebellion to be “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto God.”

Suffice
it to say, our time as Christians would be better spent swimming upstream
against the currents of compromise and corruption than finding some fashionable
flotilla with which to comfortably fit in and ride the rapids of relevancy
over the falls to our spiritual demise.

“And
Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two
opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him not a word.” – 1st Kings
18:21

Paul Proctor, a rural resident
of the Volunteer state and seasoned veteran of the country music industry,
retired from showbiz in the late 1990's to dedicate himself to addressing
important social issues from a distinctly biblical perspective. As a freelance
writer and regular columnist for NewsWithViews.com,
he extols the wisdom and truths of scripture through commentary and insight
on cultural trends and current events. His articles appear regularly on
a variety of news and opinion sites across the internet and in print.